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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29187108">Extreme Measures</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldStarGrl/pseuds/GoldStarGrl'>GoldStarGrl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Cobra Kai (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Character-typical misogyny, Intimidation, Light BDSM, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Mild S3 Spoilers, Sex Tapes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 14:00:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,581</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29187108</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldStarGrl/pseuds/GoldStarGrl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel gets a mysterious VHS tape in the mail. Johnny is the only person in California who still has the equipment to play it. They both see more than they expected.</p><p>A (semi) fill from <a href="https://cobrakaikink.dreamwidth.org/702.html?thread=43966#cmt43966">the Cobra Kai kink meme </a></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso/Terry Silver, the second one is in the past</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>100</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>356</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>I had to get super drunk and watch KK3 to write this, so just deal with whatever came out.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was kind of strange, to Johnny, how<em> not strange </em>it was for LaRusso to be standing on his doorstep.</p><p>They’d been co-running their dojo for six weeks, with mostly positive results. Sure, they’d gotten into a few scuffles about stupid shit like what the name of the place should be and if Bert needed more strength training. Once Johnny lost patience and just pushed Daniel into his stupid balance pond in front of all the kids, which lead to a week of cancelled classes and a truly hilarious YouTube video.</p><p>But mostly. It had been good. They worked on lesson plans and drank cocktails with Amanda out by the LaRussos’ pool a couple times a week. Last Monday when the Dodge wouldn’t start, Daniel swung by and picked Johnny and Miguel up for training without more than a raised eyebrow. </p><p>So it’s not <em> so </em> weird for Daniel to be standing in the bright Saturday morning sunlight at his door, decked out in a hoodie and track pants and woven sandals. Not as crazy as it once was, just a year before. </p><p>It is fucking <em> annoying</em>, though. His incessant knocking woke Johnny from a sweet dream about screwing Michelle Pfieffer on a boat.</p><p>“Hey.” He rubbed his eye with a fist, trying to ignore the pounding in his head. “It’s fucking early, what’s wrong?”</p><p>“It’s ten of noon, Johnny.” Daniel rolled his eyes. For the first time, Johnny saw he had a fancy leather bag hanging off one arm, the kind that felt like butter to the touch. </p><p>“Yeah, well, maybe I’ve been up all night.” He clicked his tongue lasciviously. He’d passed out in front of the local news after six beers, but LaRusso didn’t need to know that. “Seriously, what’s up?”</p><p>Daniel shifted, flipping open the top of his bag. His hand emerged clutching a black VHS tape.</p><p>“This showed up in my mailbox this morning,” he said. </p><p>The white label in the center said WATCH ME in all capital letters, someone shouting through sharpie. Johnny leaned against the doorframe. He needed coffee, and to stop standing in direct sunlight. “What’s on it?”</p><p>“I don’t know, Johnny,” Daniel said. “I don’t own a VHS player, what with us being well into the 21st century and all.”</p><p>He gestured expectantly into the apartment, towards Johnny’s TV set-up. </p><p>“You got a funny way of asking a favor,” Johnny said, but stood aside to let him into the apartment anyway. </p><p>“Look, something this retro? It might be about…” both of them heard the quiet part ringing over the morning traffic. Robby. Cobra Kai. Kreese. The tournaments, then and now. <em> Robby. </em></p><p>Johnny swallowed, tried to shake the thought out of his head. If goddamn LaRusso wouldn’t give him such crap for it, he’d reach for a breakfast beer. “You’re the one who has to come crawling to me because you don’t know how to hold onto a good thing.” </p><p>He threw on a pair of jeans while LaRusso fiddled around with his VHS player, befuddled like he hadn’t also been born in the late 1960s. When Johnny came back out, the damn thing was stuck on channel 3, the loud burst of static the TV emitted making them both wince.</p><p>“Move over, I got it,” Johnny crouched down next to him and LaRusso jumped up, grateful to get away from the box. “Did you see who sent this to you? The board or something?”</p><p>“There was no return address, someone must’ve dropped it with our mail.” Daniel said. The silence again, filled with the same gnawing questions. When Johnny looked over his shoulder, he nodded grimly. “Yeah. Thought it might be something we both need to look at.”</p><p>He sat back against the couch as Johnny set the tape to play, like he was settling in for a movie. Johnny leaned over the breakfast nook to grab a carton of orange juice and take a long chug, facing the wall so he could avoid judgement. </p><p>He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and turned around. Daniel wasn't sitting anymore. He sprung up, staring at the screen, arms hanging limp at his sides. </p><p>On the television, a grainy shot of a sandbag, a mirrored wall had appeared. A dojo, Johnny could recognize it like he could his own name. Did Kreese send them some kind of training video? Taunting them with the vice grip he had on Robby? </p><p>But the video was old, VHS lines running up the screen as it played. There were dark red shapes at the top and bottom, crooked and sloping over the scene. Accordion mats stored in a corner, the camera tucked somewhere in the folds. Hidden.</p><p>On the floor of the dojo, someone in a white gi lay on top of another man in all black, knees planted on either side of his hips. The dark hair, olive skin – it was <em> Daniel</em>, Johnny realized with a start. Daniel with a screen printed snake on the back of his top, Daniel looking like Cobra Kai. </p><p>"What the hell–" He tried, but it died in his mouth. A second too late, Johnny realized the people in the video weren't fighting.</p><p>Daniel’s pants were pushed halfway down his thighs, his hips rolling as the man in black thrusted up into him. Two big, pale hands grabbed LaRusso’s bare hips, hard enough to leave red finger prints. </p><p>“Feeling good, Danny boy?” The man asked. "I told you pain is temporary."</p><p>The timber in his voice made the hair on the back of Johnny’s neck stand up. Heated, a bite in each word. Like he wanted to eat LaRusso alive.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah,” Video-Daniel’s head bobbed up and down feverishly, Jersey accent thick. His skin looked so smooth, so <em>young</em> – seventeen? Eighteen? Had he really looked like that back in high school? The boy in the video seemed like a baby to Johnny now, like Miguel, <em>how dare some dude with a ponytail put their hands on a kid like Miguel.</em></p><p>“What was that?” The man’s voice turned steely, sharp. He smacked Daniel’s thigh, and rolled them over fast, pinning him to the ground, both arms above his head. With each word, he pounded into Daniel with more vigor. “You. Will. Address. Me. Respectfully.”</p><p>“Yes,<em> sir</em>,” LaRusso's face was flushed, eyes fluttering. Boxed in on the ground. At this man’s mercy and turning to liquid. "Thank you, sir."</p><p>Daniel – the real Daniel, grown up and in person – lunged forward, hit buttons on the VCR at random, but only managed to pause the video, freezing at a damning moment of ecstasy, Video-Daniel heavy-lidded, back arching against the mat, <em>loving it</em>, Johnny couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing, he thought he might be having a stroke.</p><p>“Jesus, was that–”</p><p>“Fuck off." Daniel's skin looked like he lost two liters of blood, stricken and pale. He tried to take a step back, but just swayed helplessly in place. Johnny walked around the couch, tried to grab his arm and steady him. LaRusso threw him off. “I said <em> fuck off, </em> Johnny.”</p><p>A prickle of annoyance. “Hey, you come into my house with a VHS of your weird kiddie porn–”</p><p>Daniel’s elbow drove into his chest fast, followed by a back kick that sent him slamming against the couch. Johnny’s weight tipped it over with an angry creak, and the next thing he knew was he blinking up at the ceiling, the wind knocked out of him and his furniture on its side.</p><p>“It’s not–it’s– I was <em> eighteen</em>,” Daniel’s face loomed above him, eyes bright, too bright, shiny. Was LaRusso gonna <em> cry?  </em>"That was–I wanted it, I didn't know that he–he fucking <em>filmed</em> it."</p><p>“So that is you.” Not a question. Daniel took it like a punch to the gut, breathing getting ragged. “Jesus, did you do karate themed porn or something after high school?” Not a bad idea, actually. Why hadn't he looked into that?</p><p>“No! I–” He closed his eyes, held out his right arm, gesturing to something only he could see. “That was my first time.”</p><p>“With like...dudes.” The words stuck in Johnny’s throat like peanut butter. He hadn’t even known LaRusso was <em> like </em> that, and it definitely deserved an analysis over beer with Bobby, sometime a thousand years from now when he figured out what the hell was going on.</p><p>Daniel shook his head, eyes screwing shut even tighter. His voice came out as a whisper. “Ever.”</p><p>"Oh." Something sour jolted in Johnny’s stomach. “Wait, Ali and you never–”</p><p>Daniel dropped his arm and headed for the door.</p><p>“LaRusso, stop, stop. I didn’t…” He rubbed his jaw. What the fuck were you supposed to say in a situation like this? God, he wanted to go back to being asleep, thinking about Michelle Pfieffer.</p><p>Daniel was halfway into the courtyard before Johnny got a hold on his arm, pulling him back. The way his head whipped around, those wide dark eyes–</p><p>He looked young. Scared. The way he had the day Johnny met him. A lot like the kid in the video.</p><p>“You try to drive off right now, you’re going to crash into a telephone pole.”</p><p>Daniel tried to scoff, but it came out little and pathetic. “That’s rich, coming from the king of DUIs.”</p><p>“It was only <em> three,</em> dipshit. The rest were just drunk and disorderlies.” He glanced around the courtyard for reasons he didn’t understand. Not sure if he was looking for help or enemies. “Come back inside, man. Take a breath.”</p><p>LaRusso glared down at his sandaled feet, shaking his head. “Of course <em> you </em>had to see that.”</p><p>“What the fuck does that mean?” God, Johnny had such a hangover. The stupid LA sun was going to kill him if he didn’t get back in his dark apartment with all the shades pulled now. “LaRusso, just come back to my place, we’ll figure out what to do. I got beer, you want a drink?”</p><p>Daniel didn’t move, but his breathing seemed to level out a little. Johnny couldn’t see his eyes at the angle his head was bent.</p><p>“We don’t have to keep watching it.”</p><p>Daniel gave him a look like Johnny was the stupidest person in the world for even suggesting they saw another second of that tape.</p><p>But he followed him back into the apartment. So that was something.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Johnny turned the TV monitor off so they didn’t have to keep looking at Daniel experiencing what was probably his first assisted orgasm. He pushed his couch back upright, and then, for some reason, locked the front door. </p><p>LaRusso brushed past him, into the kitchen, and started digging around in the fridge like he owned the place. He emerged with a Coors bottle, and tipped half of it down his throat.</p><p>“Hey, slow down, those things don’t grow on trees.” Johnny said. He didn’t know if he’d ever seen Daniel drink a beer. It looked unnatural.</p><p>“I’ll reimburse you the $1.50, Johnny,” he said dully, not quite meeting his eye. He took another sip, and slid down to sit on the floor, back against the cabinet. Something was strange about the way he held his body, like something had gone out of it, the air or the fight or something. </p><p>When Johnny was fourteen, Laura tried to talk to him about sex.</p><p>She probably saw the writing on the wall. Johnny had grown eight inches in six months, packed on muscle from two years basically living at Cobra Kai. Girls were starting to look at him, and he was only too happy to return the favor. He hid his <em> Playboys </em> as best he could, but to this day he was pretty sure Sid and his mom got the maids to snoop through his shit when they cleaned his room.</p><p>“Oh, stop with the face,” she told him as they sat on the couch in the TV room, <em> Johnny Carson </em>casting blue light as Johnny cringed, tried to squirm away. “Everybody does it. How do you think you got here?”</p><p>“<em>Mom!” </em></p><p>“<em>Johnny</em><em>!”</em> She shot back, in an identical, scandalized tone. “I just want you to remember to be respectful, when the time comes. Listen to what the girl says and needs. You’re not the only one there.”</p><p>“I know, I know.” He would rather go on a road trip with Sid than continue this conversation. “Will you stop?”</p><p>“Okay, okay.” Laura tucked her chin on top of his head, and they watched Johnny Carson interview some actress for a few minutes. “You know, I named you after him. Used to watch him all the time when I was pregnant. <em> Which–” </em> she poked his arm<em>. </em> “–is something that happens if you don’t use condoms.”</p><p>“Oh my God!” He got up and stalked to his room, her laughter following him up the stairs.</p><p>So a year later, when he and Ali cut their second date short to make out in her car, when making out turned to hand stuff which turned to sex, he tried to be careful. </p><p>It was cramped and her car smelled like French fries and it took him two tries to get the condom on. Ali’s hair got caught in the zipper of her discarded jacket and he bit down on her shoulder because his horny brain thought it would be sexy, which made Ali kick him in the knee. For some reason the only station they could get on the radio was country-Western, and the actual, dictionary definition of sex lasted only fifteen frantic seconds.</p><p>But they were laughing the whole time. Ali lay on his chest in her disgusting backseat after. He stroked her curly hair and they tried to see which one of them could draw the best pictures in the fogged up window with their toes. Even hearing "Streets of Laredo" in a bar decades later made him smile.</p><p>Warts and all, that night belonged to him and her, the two of them only, and always would.</p><p>Johnny finds himself sorry, sitting on the floor of his kitchen, that Daniel didn’t get that.</p><p>He doesn’t know how he ended up on the ground beside him, staring at the crumb-covered floor, feeling <em> bad </em> for LaRusso. The same strange fugue state caused him to reach over and awkwardly pat LaRusso’s kneecap. Daniel jerked his leg away like it burned, then shook his head, chuckling without any mirth.</p><p>“Great, now you think I’m some kind of…” he cut his eyes sideways, throat bobbing. <em>He's so embarrassed</em>, Johnny realized. The idea of it set his teeth on edge, that anything could actually knock LaRusso down this bad. Talk about unnatural. </p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Oh, LaRusso likes it up the ass,” Daniel dropped his voice half an octave in what was clearly supposed to be an impression of Johnny. “What a soft little bitch.”</p><p>“Don’t put words in my mouth, LaRusso,” Johnny snapped. Trust Daniel to think he was the wildest thing this side of the San Andreas. Bobby once dated a girl who loved getting her nipples bitten. Jimmy drunkenly bragged that he and his wife had been experimenting with candle wax. Shannon used to smack Johnny’s ass during sex, and more than once he had to stop himself from asking her to do it again, harder. “If <em>you</em> think you’re a loser for giving your flower to some guy with a ponytail, just man up and say it.”</p><p>Daniel exhaled, but his shoulders didn’t drop like they normally did once he’d centered himself.  He picked at the label on the Coors for a few seconds in silence. “...did you just say ‘giving your flower’?”</p><p>Johnny felt his cheeks redden. He had no idea how the 80s health class term had slipped out. “I was being polite, jackass.”</p><p>“Since when do you wear kid gloves about anything? Don't treat me like I'm a girl, Johnny.” </p><p>“Jesus, I'm not!” He stood up and got a fresh beer out of the fridge. He fixed his gaze on the yellow light, the bare shelves, before he spoke again. “Did he call you one? For doing...that?”</p><p>“No.” Daniel’s back curved against the cabinets, turning his body from an L shape to more of a question mark. “The opposite. Terry trained me for a while, before the ‘85 tournament. Fed me a bunch of crap about taking over Cobra Kai, running it right this time. We did this thing with 2x4 boards…” he ran a thumb over his knuckles. “He made me feel strong. Like, really strong. You know I was kind of a shrimpy kid, I’d never really had that before.” </p><p>Johnny popped the bottle cap off and it clinked against the floor between them. That<em> bullshit </em> look in LaRusso’s eyes when he showed up at his dojo last year, the tight fists and jumpy energy. <em> I’m going to run Cobra Kai right. </em></p><p>“One night, he was adjusting my stance, and his hands just…” Daniel made a dipping motion near his waistband. “And I never thought a guy would look at me like that, especially one who...so when we had sex, and he told me what to do, what to say, it was just...easy. It felt good.” He finished his beer and set it on the ground next to him. “I’m sorry, you don’t need to hear this.”</p><p>“It’s okay,” Johnny said. It surprised him to realize he wasn’t lying. Focusing on <em> this </em> Daniel, these words, kept his mind off the strange, low heat in his stomach. The image of Daniel on his back, ankles crossed behind Terry’s ass, making those sounds. “So, he turned out to be a creep.”</p><p>Another hollow scoff from Daniel. “You could say that.”</p><p>“I just don’t get why he sent you that video <em>now</em>. You haven’t seen the guy in thirty years.” Daniel didn’t respond, and Johnny leaned back against the counter. “Have you?”</p><p>Daniel shook his head, staring down at the floor. “What if my kids had found it?”</p><p>“LaRusso, focus,” Johnny crouched on the floor in front of him, wincing as his joints popped. “Your kids don’t even know what a VHS is. They’d probably use it as a frisbee.” </p><p>“He was friends with Kreese,” Daniel told the linoleum softly. “Terry. They’d teamed up, tried to trick me. If he sent this…” </p><p>“He’s back at Cobra Kai,” Johnny said. A different kind of flare went up in his stomach. That man, in a dojo, on a mat, with his <em> son</em>. “So what, they're trying to mess with your head? Get something?”</p><p>“I dunno.” Daniel lifted his head, and there was a grim, stony resolve in those big eyes. “I’ll need to finish watching to find out.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I just love Laura torturing teenage Johnny, I had to cut like two pages of her aggressively mothering that dork against his will</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this is spiraling wildly past the two-shot that was originally intended. let's continue!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Johnny had another beer. He went back to his room and threw on an old sweatshirt over his Def Leppard t-shirt, even though he wasn’t cold. He made his own bed for maybe the first time in his entire life. All of this took maybe six, seven minutes tops. Smoothing his hands over the thin gray bedspread, he wished that he’d left a magazine or some chips in here. </p><p>Something, anything, else to distract him from the sounds coming from the other room.</p><p>
  <em> “God, take it. You love my cock up your ass, don’t you, Danny boy?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Oh man, yeah. It’s good, sir, it’s so good–” </em>
</p><p>Johnny braced his hand against the wall of his room, letting his chin drop to his chest. Jesus Christ, he should go next door and steal those dumbass wireless Walkman headphones Miguel always used. But some weird tug inside didn’t want him to leave the apartment, walk by LaRusso, sitting alone on his couch. </p><p>
  <em> “Say it.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “I love your cock.” </em>
</p><p>Johnny’s gaze tipped downward. With a start, he realized he was absently palming himself through his jeans. Like on a boring Sunday morning, idly trying to see if he could get something going. Through the wall, he heard the unmistakable groan of someone coming, and a second moan ten seconds later, trying to catch their breath, and the situation with his dick became a lot less lazy. </p><p>He didn’t know that LaRusso could make a sound like that. </p><p>He glanced towards the half open door into his hallway. Did he have time to take care of this? The video couldn’t be much longer, unless they went more than once? Shit, his mouth was getting dry.</p><p>“Johnny. Come on out here.” LaRusso sounded tired. </p><p>“One second.” Johnny put both hands against the wall and took a deep breath.<em> Snap out of it, Lawrence, it’s fucking LaRusso. He’s having some kind of breakdown. One weirdly hot video doesn’t change the fact that he’s the least sexy person who ever lived. The man irons his jeans. </em></p><p>When he was sure he was in control again, he walked back into the living room, hands stuffed into the pocket of his sweatshirt, like he was hiding the evidence of a heinous crime. Daniel's posture had snapped back to its usual perfection, feet planted flat on the ground. Shifting gears to action mode. </p><p>"Hey. You..." Johnny shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Everything cool?"</p><p>“He taped over the end of the video with a number to call.” Daniel pointed to the TV with his chin. It was paused again, in a less damning position. The screen had gone black, leaving only a string of white block numbers in the center. Daniel was typing it in on his cell phone. "Convenient, huh.”</p><p>“That could be thirty years old, LaRusso,” Johnny said. He stood behind the back of the couch, wanting to keep a little distance between them. “Even<em> I </em>don’t have the same number I had back in ‘85.”  </p><p>Daniel shook his head, not looking up at him. “It’s not old, it’s got the 213 area code. LA County didn’t get that until 2005.”</p><p>“...how the hell do you know that?”</p><p>“I work in sales.”</p><p>“What does that have to do with– Stop it, man!” Johnny yanked the phone out of LaRusso’s hands just as he hit CALL. “What are you even going to say to him?”</p><p>Daniel took the phone back. “I’m not going to <em> say </em> anything. You don’t know this guy, he’s going to want to give a big speech, we'll get to the bottom of this faster if we just sit through that.”</p><p>“So you’re just going to let him bowl over you again?” </p><p>“Okay, whoever told you that<em> listening </em>is the same thing as–”</p><p>“<em>Hello? </em>” The voice on the other end of the line made them both freeze. Steely, smug. The little color Daniel had managed to regain in his face drained again. </p><p>“Terry?” It came out after too long a pause, and Johnny hated him for it. Weakness could not exist, right now.</p><p>“<em>What, not ‘Mr. Silver?</em>” Daniel swallowed hard, free hand curling into a fist. “<em>Hope you enjoyed the show, Danny boy. Want to give it a bigger audience, or are you still shy? </em>” </p><p>“Fuck you, man,” Johnny snapped, leaning in too close to the speaker on LaRusso’s phone, bumping his nose against Daniel’s warm cheek. “Why don’t you and me take this to the parking lot by the Ralph’s, settle this like men?”</p><p>“<em>Is that the blondie? That’s sweet, your boyfriend defending your honor. </em>”</p><p>Daniel pushed Johnny back by the shoulder, held him at arm’s length before he could say anything else. “What is Cobra Kai’s endgame here? You want money, or something?”</p><p>The voice on the other end laughed. “<em> Come on, you know I’ve never wanted for anything in that department. This is about the competition. </em>”</p><p>Daniel’s expression darkened, putting together the pieces before Johnny did. “I’m not pulling my kids from the All-Valley."</p><p>"Yeah, yours have to beat them fair and square, that was the deal," Johnny said. LaRusso tilted his head up and gave him a withering look. <em> Be quiet, </em>he mouthed.</p><p>“<em>All's fair in love and war. John and I believe in using every tool in your arsenal to win the battle." </em> Silver tsked. <em> "Think about this logically, Danny. What’s going to be worse for Samantha? Skipping a high school karate tournament, or this video going around? Everyone she knows, everyone she’s ever met, seeing her dad– </em>”</p><p>“Don’t you dare talk about my daughter.” The mention of Sam’s name seemed to snap Daniel out of his quiet, burning discomfort. “You come near her, any of our kids, and I will<em> kill </em> you. That is a <em> promise. </em>”</p><p>Silver laughed. “<em>Someone’s still a firecracker. Look, we’re both businessmen now. So I’ll give you a standard deal. Twenty-four hours to consider. After that, it goes up on YouTube.</em> <em>I suggest you take it. You’re good at that</em>.”</p><p>He hung up with a tiny beep.</p><p>"Ha, nice try," Johnny scoffed. “You can’t put one of those tapes on the YouTube, it won’t fit in the computer’s little side slot.”</p><p>LaRusso put his face in his hands. “Johnny, it’s not–yes, he can.”</p><p>Johnny swung around the arm of the couch to sit down next to him again. “Okay, so call the cops. Tell them he’s blackmailing you.”</p><p>Now it was Daniel’s turn to scoff. “The police who know Kreese has a restraining order out against my wife? Who think everyone running Cobra Kai is a war hero? Even if I got them to listen to us, it wouldn’t make people un-see the video."</p><p>“Yeah.” Johnny agreed, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Fucking pigs.”</p><p>“This won’t ever stop,” Daniel lifted his head in realization. “Who knows how many copies he has, on flash drives and his computer. God, he could pull it out every time he wants something, forever.”</p><p>Talk about no mercy. Miguel had been teaching him about the Cloud, and from what Johnny got so far, there was no way to run over it with your car and destroy it. “So...what, you let him put it up? Just get it over with?”</p><p>“No. I’m not letting my business – my family – suffer because I made a stupid mistake.”</p><p>Johnny turned in his seat. “You didn’t <em> make a mistake</em>, man.”</p><p>Daniel shook his head. “I should’ve never gone to train with him, or had sex with him, or ever set foot in that place. What the hell was I thinking?”</p><p>“You weren’t.”</p><p>“Tss. Nice.”</p><p>“What, you were a horny teenager.” Johnny shrugged. “I wouldn’t have stopped to look for cameras either, that’s nuts.” He realized he was still holding onto LaRusso’s shoulder, but didn’t remove it. Just shook him a little. “Beating you up is my job, not yours.”</p><p>This got a bitter little laugh as Daniel stared down at his knees. “Thanks,” he said. “You've actually been okay about this.”</p><p>“Yeah, whatever.” His face got warm, and he took his arm away. LaRusso caught his hand and squeezed it. Before he could register what happened, Daniel dropped it, and they both sat awkwardly, a few inches apart, silence ringing.</p><p>Johnny cleared his throat. “...so you’re not pulling the kids and you’re not letting him post the video. What option does that leave?”</p><p>Daniel took a deep breath, and stood up. “My usual move. Fight back.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daniel’s plan to <em>fight back</em> seemed a lot less cool when he just took his laptop out of his bag and posted up at Johnny’s kitchen table.</p><p>Johnny watched him from the living room for a few seconds, eyes narrowing when he realized there were no plans for smashing and using the shards of plasma as a shiv on the horizon. Daniel looked like he was finishing a term paper, fingers clicking across the keyboard at lightning speed, thick eyebrows pinched together above his nose.</p><p>“What are you doing?” He asked. “Finding a lawyer?”</p><p>“I already have a lawyer,” LaRusso said. “Specializes in commercial law. This is a little outside her wheelhouse.”</p><p>“Then what–”</p><p>“Can you get me another beer? Actually–” He dug his wallet out of his pants without taking his eyes off the screen. “–go buy something good, local. McLeod Ale brews this incredible wheat beer, right in Van Nuys.”</p><p>“LaRusso, I’m not driving to Van Nuys for some fruity beer when there’s perfectly good Coors in the fridge.”</p><p>Daniel scoffed, brandishing his credit card at Johnny with more force. Black Amex, of course. Dick. “Fine, order it on the app. Drizly, it's red.”</p><p>Johnny stood up, eyebrows in his hairline. “You can get beer <em>delivered?”</em></p><p>“Why did I tell you that?” Daniel braced both hands behind his neck, but Johnny snatched the card away and picked LaRusso’s iPhone off the coffee table.</p><p>The lockscreen picture – Amanda on some tropical vacation, grinning with a daiquiri in hand – lit up. Johnny ignored the strange twist in his gut, swiped by it to look through Daniel’s apps.</p><p>“When did you know you liked guys?” With horror, Johnny realized the question had come out of his own mouth. He hastily pressed the purple ORDER button. Fuck, this booze could not get here fast enough.</p><p>LaRusso’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t stop typing. “When did you know you liked girls?”</p><p>Johnny shrugged. “I dunno, twelve, thirteen. The normal age.”</p><p>“Well, there you go.” Daniel rubbed one of his eyes with the heel of his hand. “I’m not gay, or whatever it is you’re thinking. Amanda and I have a real marriage. Ali and I had a real relationship."</p><p>“I never said you didn’t.” Johnny didn’t like that defensive tone, making him feel like he had to atone for asking a damn question. Classic LaRusso, pretending to be prey so he was free and clear to attack. “So you’re into both.”</p><p>“<em>Yes.</em>” The tone flipped annoyed to warning, the Ticked Off Dad Voice that made Johnny want to hit things.</p><p>“I thought that was just for hot chicks on <em>The Real World," </em>he said.</p><p>Daniel slapped his laptop shut. “You want to stop being a jackass for five seconds?”</p><p>“Screw you, LaRusso, you just said I've been awesome about this. Let you drink my beer and watch your porn and drag <em>our kids</em> into this crap!”</p><p>Illegal hit; he could tell by the way Daniel’s head reared back, face going slack. Johnny tightened his grip around the top of the couch cushion, like he could transfer the guilt into the foam if he squeezed hard enough.</p><p>LaRusso picked up his computer and stood. “I’m going home. I’ll deal with this on my own. As usual.”</p><p>“LaRusso, I wasn't trying to make fun of you,” Johnny threw an arm out to hold him back. Daniel twisted it away, and reflex took over. Johnny went back on his heel and aimed a crescent kick, accidentally knocking the laptop out of his arms and onto the carpet. “Or– that was douchey.”</p><p>Daniel dropped to his knees and scooped his laptop up. “What you said, or your thirty year compulsion to knock my shit out of my arms?”</p><p>Johnny chuckled. “Oh yeah. That was practically a sport, Dutch and I had a running tally of who could do it most by the end of the semester.”</p><p>"Yeah, truly hilarious." Daniel sat down in the wiry yellow chair that Johnny'd owned since before Robby was born. He opened the clamshell to see if the screen had shattered. “Whatever happened to that guy?”</p><p>“He’s doing fifteen at Lompoc.” Daniel snorted, eyes widening when he realized Johnny wasn’t joking. “Relax, no one’s dead, it was just aggravated assault.”</p><p>“Oh, if that’s all,” Daniel said archly, but he powered up his computer again. Johnny sat down on the carpet, resting his elbow against the side of the coffee table. "So, you didn't know guys could swing both ways?"</p><p>The tips of Johnny's ears turned pink. "I was...making conversation."</p><p>"Feeling a little curious?"</p><p>Pink to red. "Jesus Christ, LaRusso."</p><p>Daniel smirked. For a long time, Johnny didn’t say anything else, afraid of tearing a hole in the paper-thin truce. Afraid of giving himself away. Daniel’s clicking filled the room.</p><p>The beer was delivered by a teenage boy who had the balls to look confused when Johnny shook his hand and said <em>thank you for your service</em>. Daniel joined him on the ground and they had a drink Japanese-style, legs crossed and shoes off. The late afternoon light slanted into the living room, striping them both gold.</p><p>“Y’know something? I was kind of jealous of you and Dutch and the guys back in the day.” LaRusso said, finishing off one of his – admittedly awesome – local beers. Too late, Johnny realized he probably should’ve gotten some food into that skinny body; Daniel was talking just a smidge too loud to be sober.</p><p>“Really?” Johnny would lie down in traffic for the other Cobras, but he couldn't see why Daniel harbored any love for the people who kicked his ass up and down the hallway for six months.</p><p>“You had each other’s backs. Always on those stupid motorcycles, drinking and screwing around.” Daniel said. “Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Miyagi was the best, I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t known him. But sometimes I wished I had friends my own age.”</p><p>He said it simply, matter-of-fact, but it still seemed pitiful to Johnny. “You had Ali.”</p><p>Daniel smiled ruefully. “Ali was my <em>girlfriend</em>. My Ma used to joke that I had a tendency to jump right over the ‘friends’ part and just fall in love.” The smile got thin, hard, as his eyes drifted to the VCR. “Guess she was right.”</p><p>Johnny grabbed the corner of the computer and pulled it over. “Stop moping. You gotta show me what you’ve been doing on this thing all day.”</p><p>“Okay, it’s been maybe an hour and a half.” Daniel said, but pulled up the webpage anyway. It was pretty, a pale green with a minimalist petal logo. <em>Keeping your world clean</em>, read the banner. Johnny squinted at it.</p><p>“What’s DynaToks?”</p><p>“<em>That</em> is rebranding for the 21st century. Used to be T-O-X. It’s Terry’s waste management company.” Daniel moved the cursor to ABOUT, and sure enough, a corporate headshot appeared, <em>Terry Silver, Founder and CEO.</em> The ponytail had been mercifully cut off, the coiffed hair more salt than pepper, but it was definitely the man from the video. Lean build, sharp features. Reminded Johnny of a coyote. “I’ve been searching for dirt on him. He’s never been married, no record of affairs, kids illegitimate or otherwise. Company’s title and trading history seem legit. I can’t find a single black mark since the 90s.”</p><p>“When he…” Johnny took another swig from his beer to avoid finishing the sentence. LaRusso rolled his eyes.</p><p>“EPA violations, actually. But once the Bush administration came in, he just had to pay a fine.”</p><p>“Jeez, you got all that off the internet?” Johnny tapped the side of the laptop. “Forget karate, you should be a detective.”</p><p>Daniel sighed, leaned back against the couch legs. “Some good it did. I can only pull a ‘mutually assured destruction’ maneuver if I actually find something that could destroy him.”</p><p>Johnny considered this. “Well...why not use the tape?”</p><p>LaRusso tilted his head. “Excuse me?”</p><p>The sun was starting to shine in Johnny’s eyes, so he made a visor with his hand, trying to focus on the dark spots in his vision instead of Daniel’s face. “Think about if this happened to Sam.”</p><p>“<em>Watch it</em>,” the tone like a knife was back.</p><p>“LaRusso, shut up. Listen. If some guy secretly filmed himself having sex with your teenage daughter, and then sent it to the internet, do you think people would take the<em> guy’s </em>side?”</p><p>Daniel clicked his tongue. “Some of them would.”</p><p>“Well, obviously, people are dicks. But with the whole hashbrown Me Too thing, I bet a bunch of them would feel sorry for her. I would.” Again, he thought about how young Daniel looked in the video, like Miguel or Robby. Eighteen. Barely a person yet. </p><p>LaRusso’s shoulders tightened. “So you feel sorry for me?"</p><p>"Yeah, kind of."</p><p>A hard shove against his ribs, rocking him to one side. "Fuck you, Johnny, don't pity me."</p><p>Johnny shoved him back. "Well, I'm not <em>now</em>, dick."</p><p>"That is exactly why this can't get out. I'm not <em>weak.</em>"</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“No you don’t. You have <em>no</em> idea what this is like.”</p><p>Johnny set his beer down hard. “<em>I</em> don’t know what it’s like to be humiliated by someone you trusted?”</p><p>Daniel’s eyes flicked up to his throat, but he didn’t say anything.</p><p>“Look, you want to fight back? Any good fighter knows the best defense is a good offense. And this is the only move you've got. Strike hard."</p><p>“You want to bet <em>everything</em> on that bullshit Cobra Kai philosophy? My family, the dealership. <em>Our</em> business.” Daniel’s head swiveled, close enough that his nose bumped against Johnny’s. "Because it might <em>maybe</em> call his bluff?"</p><p>“It's not bullshit. It's what you're looking for. Mutually assured destruction." He opened another round of beers and handed one to LaRusso, mostly to get out of his personal space. "This comes out? You'll get hurt. But so will he."</p><p>Daniel pressed his lips together so tight they turned white. “It really sucks when you’re right, you know that?"</p><p>Then he got close again, shoulder and side and hip pressed against Johnny’s. Daniel still smelled like minty aftershave and nice shampoo, a little sweaty from an afternoon of drinking and panicking. He took a drink, and Johnny watched the muscles in his neck move.</p><p>“Relax. I got your back, LaRusso."</p><p>Daniel leaned forward, pressed his forehead into Johnny's shoulder. He breathed out of his nose, slow and careful, and LaRusso just curved into him, one hand still gripping the glass beer bottle on the coffee table. Johnny lifted his right hand, tentative as a bomb technician, and let it rest on Daniel's spine, light between his shoulder blades. The sunlight hit the edges of his dark hair, turning them amber and gold, like he was catching fire.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daniel left a message, because Silver didn’t bother to pick up the phone. The microwave clock told Johnny is was close to five PM. Quitting time, drinking time. Maybe the jerk was busy. Or maybe he didn’t expect LaRusso’s answer so fast. </p><p>
  <em> You want to play dirty? I can share videos too. Then we’ll see who comes out looking bad. </em>
</p><p>Johnny didn’t think he'd ever heard LaRusso say a sentence that short before. Or drink so much in one sitting. It was a whole day of weird, unexpected firsts.</p><p>Like the cuddling.</p><p>Okay, not <em>cuddling</em>, that word made Johnny burn and try to crawl out of his skin. Just...really close sitting. </p><p>Daniel didn’t lift his head from the curve of Johnny’s shoulder, not to make his call, not even to finish his beer, then Johnny's. His arm had gone stiff, then numb, from being bent around LaRusso’s back for God knows how long. </p><p>LaRusso’s chest rose and fell so gently and even he could’ve been asleep, if not for those dark eyes, staring blankly against the wall. </p><p>“The hell am I gonna tell the kids?” He asked the space to the left of Johnny’s chest.</p><p>“They’re like fifteen and ten, they know what sex is.”</p><p>“Try <em> seventeen </em> and <em> thirteen</em>, Johnny,” LaRusso rolled his eyes. “I didn’t mean just mine. All the kids at Miyagi-Do.” </p><p>Johnny shrugged. He decided to be a gentleman and not remind Daniel that hadn’t actually agreed on a co-dojo name yet. “Why do you have to tell them anything?”</p><p>“To prepare them. Would<em> you </em> want Robby just stumbling on something like this on Twitter?”</p><p>Robby. Robby in the Cobra Kai dojo, surrounded by snakes. He didn't even think his son liked guys, but if today proved anything, it's that he didn't have a fantastic sense of things like that.</p><p>
  <em>Would it even matter to someone like Terry Silver, once he had his sights set and fangs out, if Robby didn't?</em>
</p><p>Johnny’s fingers dug into Daniel’s flesh involuntarily, and he hissed. “Shit, sorry.”</p><p>His ass was starting to go numb. No one over the age of 25 should ever sit on the floor. Maybe Daniel just couldn’t figure out a tactful way to remove himself from Johnny’s iron grip.</p><p>
  <em> When has LaRusso ever cared about being polite with you?</em>
</p><p>"Can I ask you something if you promise not to throw a bitch fit?" </p><p>Daniel raised an eyebrow. "You know better than to ask me for something like that."</p><p>Dickhead. Johnny looked up at his popcorn ceiling. "Do you think Terry...do you think he was into you because you were <em>you</em>, or because you were...there, where he wanted you?" <em>Cute and inexperienced. Desperate for approval. Lonely.</em></p><p>LaRusso nodded, digesting this. He didn't punch him. "I honestly don't know." </p><p>"Oh."</p><p>"Thinking about Robby?" He asked, like some kind of Guido mindreader. Johnny decided to do the WASP-y thing and blow by the question.</p><p>“You'll tell all the kids you didn’t let some jackass walk all over you. It's what we teach them everyday, they're gonna understand. And I know this might be a blow to a cocky asshole like you, but they are <em>not</em> gonna be into watching a sex tape featuring their middle-aged sensei.” He paused. “Maybe Demetri. Something about that kid's not right.”</p><p>Daniel scoffed. “Always a comfort, Johnny.” </p><p>“I’m not trying to be a dick, you’re hot and everything, but not to a bunch of sixteen-year-olds who can get professional porn on their phones.” </p><p>LaRusso sat up straight. The place on Johnny’s t-shirt his head had lain felt cold in his absence. “Wow, I must be the envy the whole West Valley cheerleading squad, Johnny Lawrence thinks I’m <em> hot</em>.”</p><p>“Shut up.” A lifetime practicing a stoic face in a fight kept Johnny from cringing outwardly, but he knew his ears were heating up again.</p><p>"Especially back then." He whistled through his teeth. "Look out, I could eat pasta every night and still had abs. Bet you did look, huh, Johnny?"</p><p>"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, LaRusso."</p><p>Daniel’s phone vibrated on the coffee table, saving him from further humiliation. His smile dropped.</p><p>A text, from the same number they'd called earlier. <em> Suit yourself, Danny boy. </em></p><p>“What does that mean?” Johnny asked. “Is he putting it up?”</p><p>LaRusso set the phone down again, the muscles in his face tightening. “I guess so.” He sat back on his heels, blinking rapidly. </p><p>Silence rang through the apartment, the pushy way it did after a gun went off.</p><p>“You oka–” Johnny started warily, before Daniel was <em>on</em> him, knee digging awkwardly into his gut, mouth pressed hard against his own. Johnny’s hands dropped to LaRusso’s hips, but a second later he pulled back.</p><p>“Whoa. Come on, man.”</p><p>Daniel shook his head. “I just need to not think about this for ten minutes. Give me ten minutes of normal.” He knocked his forehead against Johnny’s, creating an arch between their faces. </p><p>“This is <em> normal? </em>” Johnny’s hands had moved without consulting his brain again, down to palm LaRusso’s ass through his sweats. “LaRusso, I thought you were working on the 'friends, not girlfriends' thing."</p><p>Daniel nipped at his bottom lip, teasing. "First you say I'm hot, now you wanna be my girlfriend?"</p><p>He squeezed a handful of LaRusso's ass, watched his spine arch backward from the place Johnny pulled him in. "Will you just <em>shut the fuck up</em> for once?"</p><p>"I'm not in love with you, jackass, I just..." Daniel’s skin was getting darker, flushed. He reached down, pressed the heel of his hand against Johnny’s cock, already on it’s way to half-hard. “Johnny. Please.”</p><p>This was <em> not </em> the boy in the video. His hair was shorter and had a few strands turning silver among the black. His blue Athleta sweatshirt cost more than that kid’s family made in a month. He was only an inch or two shorter than Johnny now, not half a foot. </p><p>He had that live wire light glowing manically behind eyes that were finally starting to line at the corners. His stomach was soft, not so invulnerable against pasta anymore. His hands were strong and calloused on the palms in a way even twenty years in a corner office couldn’t soften. </p><p>Daniel LaRusso in his lap, somehow more infuriating and more endearing than he ever could’ve been at eighteen, a grown man who knew exactly how he wanted to kick off his self-destruction. For the first time in a long time, Johnny found he didn’t mind that he was one, too. </p><p>“Okay, if you’re gonna whine about it.”</p><p>He curled his arm underneath LaRusso’s thigh, pulling him closer. He turned him around with a twist, leaning his chest against Daniel’s back before he could see him roll his eyes. It didn’t stop a startled little yelp from escaping. Daniel grabbed Johnny’s forearm to steady himself, but he didn’t move to get up. </p><p>“You’re such a jackass,” he muttered. Johnny hooked his chin over his shoulder, wrapped an arm tight around his waist, holding him in place. LaRusso inhaled sharply. Bingo.</p><p>“You love it,” Johnny said, before pressing a kiss to the pulse point in Daniel’s neck. “Don’t you?”</p><p>LaRusso reached down to untie his sweats, squirming against Johnny’s jeans and dick in a way that was just. Patently unfair. Johnny licked his palm and stuck it down Daniel’s fancy Calvin Klein briefs, wrapped a hand around his cock.</p><p>This is why he flipped him, so he could try this from a familiar angle, less chance of screwing it up, if that was even possible in a day as bizarre as this one, maybe nothing today counted as good or bad, just two guys in a room trying to keep the world from falling apart.</p><p>Daniel’s hips jerked a little, thrusting into the air. He clamped his mouth shut, trying to swallow any desperate noises.</p><p>But Johnny didn’t start jerking him off yet, just held Daniel’s dick in his damp hand, pressed his face against the side of his neck and listened to his breathing get ragged, close to panting. “<em>Don’t you</em>, LaRusso?”</p><p>Daniel let his chin drop against his chest. “Yeah. God help me, I do.”</p><p>“Me too, Jesus,” Johnny said, and started moving his wrist.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>LaRusso didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands while Johnny jerked him off.</p><p>Full of frenetic energy, his grip reaching behind him to lace through Johnny’s hair, then down to clap over his knee. </p><p>“God,” he murmured, hand jumping again, bracing against the side of Johnny’s neck. “Can you fuck me?”</p><p>Johnny’s hand stuttered for a moment. He increased the speed to hide it, dropped a restraining ankle on top of LaRusso’s, where both pairs of legs were sprawled under the table. </p><p>“I’m a little busy right now,” he managed. But his hand moving faster, eyes on the prize. The pressure of his cock straining against his jeans, pinned under LaRusso's twisting body, was becoming unbearable.</p><p>Daniel tipped his head back, tickling Johnny’s nose with his hair. “After.”</p><p>Johnny ran his thumb over the tip of his cock as Daniel arched back against him, come striping the carpet and the bunched-up knees of his pants. Eh, both had seen worse.</p><p>“Jesus, Johnny,” he panted, turning his head to press a clumsy kiss to Johnny’s throat. “That–That–”</p><p>“I know, right?”</p><p>Daniel looked up from his his eyebrows, smirking like a jerk. “That <em>wasn’t</em> ten minutes.”</p><p>“Come on, up,” Johnny levered himself off the couch, arm still around LaRusso’s waist. It only took a few steps to get them to the kitchen table. A hand back between LaRusso's shoulder blades, bending him over the scratched up surface.</p><p>His sweats were still tangled just above his knees. Johnny ran a hand down his flank. It was a great ass, pert and firm; and that was before reckoning with the fact it belonged to Daniel fucking LaRusso. </p><p>“Yeah?” He asked. </p><p>Daniel nodded, braced both his forearms on the table. “Yeah.”</p><p>“Don’t move." He stumbled back towards his bedroom to find some lube. And LaRusso <em> didn’t</em>, just stayed balanced, loose, trying to catch his breath.</p><p><em> It’s just anal</em>, Johnny told himself, three fingers and half a roll-up tube of XY Jelly later. <em> Nothing you haven’t done before with half a dozen babes.</em> <em>Same parts, same deal. </em></p><p>His heart beating in his throat must’ve been from, like, hunger or something, as he pushed his aching cock into LaRusso.</p><p>“Fuck,” Daniel hissed, pushing back, fucking himself onto Johnny. "'course you're this fucking big."</p><p>Every thought in the world left Johnny brain, possibly forever. </p><p>Always a champ, his body stepped in when his mind faltered. He grabbed LaRusso’s hips and hoisted them upwards, getting a better angle to pump into him. </p><p>So hot, so tight around him. Daniel’s fingers curled under his palms on the table’s surface as he jolted forward a little with each thrust. Johnny reached over and pressed down on his wrist.</p><p>“You’re so,” He said dumbly, hips snapping. “Fuck, you take it so well.”</p><p>“I know I do,” LaRusso hummed under his breath, and in his haze Johnny couldn’t tell if it was an annoyed noise or a boastful one. Knowing LaRusso, probably both mixed together. </p><p>He didn’t last very long, fucking Daniel with enough force to knock over one of the chairs, a string of <em>what a tight ass,</em> <em>you’re so good, shit, </em>falling out of his mouth. He leaned over and pressed a kiss against the top of Daniel’s spine.</p><p>“Holy shit,” Daniel’s legs wobbled underneath him as Johnny pulled out, delicately as he could in his own molten state. A faint alert pinged through his mind, too late, that he hadn’t used a condom. He hadn’t noticed any weird rashes or itches lately, it was probably fine.</p><p>“Good boy." He enjoyed the flush in LaRusso’s cheeks when the nickname landed.</p><p>"Dickhead." He got his briefs and pants back up. He didn’t tie the drawstring, and they hung low on his sharp, olive-colored hipbones. Johnny ran a thumb over the heated skin. </p><p>“Hey,” he said. “I have an idea.”</p><p>Daniel sighed, raking a hand back through his hair. “I’m flattered, but we’re not seventeen anymore, I need more than a minute before the next round.”</p><p>“No, I–” Johnny impatiently shook the intriguing idea from his head. “One second.”</p>
<hr/><p>Somewhere around the time Johnny came inside Daniel, a seven minute, fifteen second video, minus the phone number, uploads to YouTube, Facebook, PornHub. </p><p>
  <strong> <em> All-Valley Champ Daniel LaRusso nailed hard </em> </strong>
</p><p>Within half an hour, Daniel is back on his laptop. Using some button Johnny doesn't understand, he’d downloads the .mov and re-uploads it with a different title.</p><p>
  <em><strong> Dyntoks CEO posts Teen Revenge Porn</strong> </em>
</p><p>The moonrise is well over the buildings of Reseda when Amanda calls, voice tight enough to snap in half, words that have blood and rage and plans to find Terry Silver and knock him unconscious in them. Daniel’s eyes get unmistakably shiny at the sound of his wife, sinking down to sit on top of the coffee table. Johnny tells himself his stomachache isn't happening, pull it together, Lawrence.</p><p>She shows up in an Uber, ready to collect Daniel and his car. If she smells sex and petroleum jelly in the air, she doesn’t comment. Just wraps her thin arms around her husband's shoulders. Eyes shut tight, she murmurs in his ears about lawyers and cops, <em>better</em> cops, a plan. They'll get through this, they’ll figure it out.</p><p>Daniel grabs his things and says he just wants to go home.</p><p>Terry Silver’s video gets 9,745 hits by ten AM. Daniel’s version gets thirty-four thousand.</p><p>At Miyagi-Do the next afternoon, none of the kids can quite look each other – let alone Johnny – in the eye. Sam’s exercise clothes are baggy enough to swallow her, eyes boring into the ground like she wants to set it on fire or cry, maybe both. LaRusso is still inside, forehead pressed against the wall, trying to psych himself up to come out and teach. </p><p>Johnny climbs onto the platform and barks that the kids will not mention any “interweb bullshit” and “will treat Sensei LaRusso with respect” or he’ll “make them run suicides until they puke in the koi pond”, is that understood? Everyone responds in the affirmative except for Sam, who is still enthralled with the blades of grass under her feet.</p><p>The class is quiet and a little awkward when Daniel leads them through a kata without any of his usual friendly chitchat. Johnny uses the time to drag the jab pads out for sparring later in the lesson.</p><p>“Since when do they all call him Sensei?” a low, quiet voice behind him, at the edge of the property. </p><p>“Class already started today, if you’re interested in signing up come back in an h…” Johnny fades when he sees Robby standing against the gate, wearing black jeans and an extremely uncomfortable expression. “Oh. Hey.” He swallows. “We’re both Sensei now, it’s less confusing.”</p><p>“I guess.” Robby slouches, hands in his pockets, causing his shoulders to hike up near his ears. </p><p>“What are you–”</p><p>“Don’t tell Mr. LaRusso that I watched the video,” Robby blurts out, looking past Johnny at the wooden fence, forever half painted. “I–I don’t want him to know I saw him, like that.” </p><p>Johnny glances over his shoulder, but Daniel and the class seem determinedly engaged in their warm-ups, forced focus masquerading as calm. No heads turn towards their little corner. “Okay.”</p><p>“It was really, um...it was fucked up that Sensei Silver did that,” Robby says, and Johnny barely avoids flinching at the name. Swallows the burning questions. <em>Did he try anything with you? Let me do the only thing I know how. Let me hurt him. Let me destroy him.</em></p><p>“Yeah.” </p><p>“Do you think I could train here again?” Another sentence out in a rush, so fast it takes Johnny a second to parse it for meaning. If he were like LaRusso, mushy and tactile and the kind of hyper-involved dad who'd earned it, he’d wrap Robby in his arms and not let him go for the rest of the day.</p><p>Because he’s himself, he just nods curtly. “Why don’t you take your shoes off, join the back row?”</p><p>Robby blinks. "I'm not dressed for it."</p><p>"Who cares?" He locks the gate with his son inside.</p><p>Over the next month, sales at LaRusso Auto Group drop 17%. The principal of West Valley Middle School calls and says it might be better if Amanda’s the one who picks Anthony up from school, just for a little while. The other moms whisper, <em>tsk</em> with faux-sympathetic glee that poor Mandy married some kind of closet case. She feels like she's back in high school, a victim of the mean girls once again.</p><p>Someone catcalls LaRusso when he’s coming out of the grocery store with Sam – <em> you teach your daughter how to sit on a real man’s cock, Danny boy? – </em> and Amanda has to write the guy a $3,000 check to keep him from calling the cops, for the damages incurred when Daniel shattered the windshield of his BMW with his elbow and punched the asshole in the throat.</p><p>Sam lifts her head up after that, at least.</p><p>That night, Amanda banishes Daniel to sleep in the pool house and invites Johnny to a wine bar. She squeezes his hand in the glow of the Edison bulbs, and tells him that he can <em> do what he needs to do </em> to get LaRusso through this, for all three of their sakes. Before someone ends up in prison. </p><p>He remembers a condom that weekend, and LaRusso lets him fuck him against the bathroom mirror, watching himself get wrecked. He doesn't seem to mind it, in this context.</p><p>One of Sam's friends, the hippie girl Hawk used to bone, starts a passionate Instagram campaign about <em>victim blaming </em>and <em>unequal</em> <em>power dynamics</em> and <em>the disproportionate victimhood of bisexuals </em>and about a million other Gender Studies terms Johnny can't be bothered to learn.</p><p>Just because it turns out he's a little bit gay doesn't mean he has to be a dork about it.</p><p>It gets pretty popular, or maybe people just move on to the next catastrophe, because by the beginning of February, there's less and less laughing at Daniel at the store, Sam and Anthony at school, Amanda on the showroom floor.</p><p>The morning before Valentine's Day, Dynatoks announces a “managerial restructuring” and Terry Silver is removed as CEO by the board of directors for “behavior not in line with our beliefs”. </p><p>He gets $19 million in severance. He’s still at Cobra Kai, with Kreese and God knows how many kids. But it’s something. </p><p>Robby, even quiet and glaring, stretching in the yard, Daniel leaning against his shoulder while Amanda makes margaritas because her husband isn't a white-hot ball of guilt and shame anymore, a class full of kids who can reach out and grab onto a teacher whose solid, safe, is something.</p>
<hr/><p>But none of that had come to pass, yet. </p><p>Right now, they were just two guys in a room.</p><p>Johnny bent down and ejected the tape from his VCR. He locked his elbows, turned around, and held it out in front of LaRusso, just below his eye level. “Care to do the honors?”</p><p>Daniel wiped the sweat off his forehead with his wrist. After a second, a grin broke across his face for the first time all day. “Hell yeah.”</p><p>He rocked back and kicked through the tape, turning it to two pieces of plastic and tangled, useless ribbon in Johnny’s hands.</p><p>They can handle this.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>happy valentine's day?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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